Page 100 of Bro Code

They lay there like tangled spoons with Riley’s hand on Louis’ hip, and neither of them moved for so long that Louis started to wonder if Riley might have fallen asleep. Then the mattress shifted as Riley pulled him closer and kissed the back of his neck.

“Did you get all that?” said Riley.

A laugh shot out of him. “Oh shit, the phone.”

“It’s on the floor somewhere,” Riley mumbled against his spine.

“Is it still recording?”

“Probably.”

“Should we say something for when we watch it back?”

Riley snorted. His hand came off Louis’ hip and did a thumbs-up in the air. “Good job, future us.”

“Good job, us,” Louis called to the room. “You really fucked the shit out of each other.”

Riley laughed and wrapped his arm around him again, pulling him in tight. He bent Louis’s knees with his and nuzzled his nose in close behind Louis’ ear, and Louis felt like he was going to melt through the floor all over again.

They must have fallen asleep because Louis woke up in the same position. As he pushed up onto his elbow, Riley stirred and sat up too.

“Oh shit.” He dragged a hand down his face. “Did we fall asleep?”

“It would appear so.”

“Did we ever turn the camera off?”

Louis burst out laughing. “Nope.”

Riley rolled in and kissed his shoulder, then rolled the other way, off the bed, and onto his feet. He looked down. “I’m gonna let you figure that one out. I need to shower.”

Louis pouted. “What if I want to do it twice?”

Riley’s eyebrow ticked up. “Then I guess I’ll shower twice.”

Louis watched his naked ass disappear into the bathroom, then collapsed onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. Then remembered the phone was still recording, and rolled over to look for it on the floor. He scooped it up and stopped the video — ten minutes of solid gold and forty-five minutes of just the ceiling — then rolled onto his back and swiped to Instagram to check out the picture Nic had posted outside the club.

He lay there looking at it for a long time, carefully examining each of their faces. Nic’s movie star smile, Liam beside him, looking like he was considering the possibility of thinking about maybe smiling at some point, and next to him, Riley, looking gorgeous and slightly disheveled. And on the end, Louis. Beaming like he’d never been so happy in his life.

Nic had captioned it The League of Extraordinarily Gay Gentlemen.

He scrolled to the comments. Ten thousand likes already, and nothing but people telling them how handsome they were and how happy they looked. Elliot Rodriguez had commented five fire emojis, and underneath that, Dustin Bennet had written, Where was my invitation, gents?

Underneath that was a comment that stopped his thumb. It was Chloé:

Félicitations! Louis looks happier than I’ve ever seen him. And then hearts in all the colors of the rainbow.

There was something very heartwarming about seeing his little sister and the great Dustin Bennet celebrating the same thing. Say what you wanted about the evils of social media, but every once in a while, it did give you moments like this. Two worlds colliding. His two families colliding.

And he thought: I want to take Riley home for Christmas.

It was such a startling thought that he actually gasped. He lay the phone on his chest and stared at the ceiling, holding it carefully while he examined it. Was that really what he wanted? He would love to introduce Riley to Chloé. But Manman? And Papa? He tried to picture it. His worlds truly colliding like that. Would Riley be able to handle it? Would he?

The bathroom door opened and Riley came out toweling his hair, skin speckled with water droplets. A draught of fragrant steam came with him. He caught Louis’ eye across the room and smirked, tossing the towel aside, and Louis watched him coming. He stood over him, looking down, a small smile still playing on his lips.

“You look good in my bed.”

Louis rolled onto his stomach, tucking the phone into his fist and propping his chin on it. “I look good everywhere.”